There are many ways to show the user only the data they need. Row level security (RLS) is one of the most universal, simple, and reliable mechanisms ensuring that the data are presented only to persons having the required access rights. In this article, I will show that there is nothing really difficult in RLS and will explain how to set up an access rights differentiation system using the database tools and without affecting the performance much.
Read full article →Ruffling the penguin! How to fuzz Linux kernel
For the last five years, I’ve been using fuzzing to find vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel. During that time, I implemented three major projects: fuzzed the network subsystem through system calls (and wrote several exploits for the identified bugs), then fuzzed the network externally, and, finally, fuzzed the USB subsystem from the device side.
Read full article →Secret of the widget. Exploiting a new severe vulnerability in vBulletin
In September 2019, the CVE-2019-16759 vulnerability was discovered in the vBulletin forum engine. The bug enabled any user to execute arbitrary commands in the system and even resembled a backdoor. The developers have promptly fixed it, but in August 2020, a new possibility to bypass the patch and exploit the last year’s security hole was found.
Read full article →Right to root. Privilege escalation in Linux
Root privileges allow you to do whatever you want in the system: establish a foothold by creating a backdoor, inject a rootkit or a trojan, alter or delete any information, etc. Accordingly, privilege escalation is one of your primary objectives during an attack. In this article, I will explain how to gain root rights on Linux systems.
Read full article →OSCP exam and how to pass it
Every information security specialist is aware of OSCP certification. It takes plenty of time to prepare to this exam, then it takes a whole day to take it, and then you produce a write-up describing your experience. Those willing to take the OSCP exam post tons of questions in Twitter, on reddit, and on specialized forums. In this article, I will try to give answers to the most common and basic questions on this matter.
Read full article →Battle Linux. Best pentesting and OSINT distributions
In this article, we will briefly discuss specialized Linux distributions used by pentesters and ethical hackers. The most popular such distribution is Kali, but we want to bring to your attention several other Linux systems – not only no less efficient, but even surpassing Kali in certain areas.
Read full article →Kung Fu pivoting. Post-exploitation to the maximum
Pivoting is an important stage of any pentesting research: the attacker establishes a foothold in the compromised system to use it as a bridgehead for further penetration. This article examines the basic pivoting techniques used nowadays.
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